Friday, March 29, 2013

Oh Crop!

Question for you, have you ever seen a picture that is pretty but something is terribly wrong and you just can't put your finger on it? Then all of a sudden it hits you smack in the middle of the forehead... the girl in the picture is missing her chin, or maybe both of her feet. Why does this couple not have any limbs, or appear not to when they really do? The answer to this question is a bad crop job! The way you crop a photograph, whether it is in camera (what I highly suggest doing) or in Photoshop can either win the photograph a prize or seal the fate of moving to the trashcan icon on your desktop.

My personal opinions on cropping

1-Cropping in camera can help you tell the story- never just shoot to shoot with out any idea of the end result in mind.

2- Be aware of limbs. It can be hard sometimes when you are in the moment and worrying about lighting,  camera settings and everything else that goes into play when you are shooting that it is easy to cut off a hand or foot. Take your time, slow down and breath. Look at what you see through your lens before firing away.

3- When it comes to cropping in nice and tight on the face never crop off the chin. Just don't. Don't ask why just don't. :) Crop the forehead over the chin. It is more natural because we wear hats that hide that part of our head. Nothing is usually hiding the chin.

4- Use the rule of thirds when cropping IN and OUT of Camera.  Don't crop images to the dead center. It usually hold no story line.

Below are some pictures of mine that I cropped in photoshop so you could see a little of what I am talking about.

In this first group of photos I show you how to crop when you go in tight on the head. Crop the forehead, not the chin!

Here I cropped In Camera...in the first photo they are entering the scene and have somewhere to go. In the second photo they are exiting the scene. Just these different crops can change the story of your picture.
 In the last set here I showed how you should not cut off feet. Always leave your subjects their limbs. They will thank you and come back to book you again!

I hope you learned today the importance of cropping an image properly. But please do remember that for every rule given to you, that same rule can be broken. Just break it wisely, and in a beautiful manner. ;)

One woman that has cropping down to an art is my good friend Erin Summerill. Go check out her blog and what she is putting out in the world wide web. 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A Secret Love

There is a little secret that I must share with you all. I am a little nervous because I don't want my husband to be jealous, but I need to get this off of my chest... I am in love with my 70-200 2.8 lens.
Whew. That feels great to share! :) 
Every time, with out fail when I connect that lens to my camera I KNOW that I will be madly in love with the pictures it gives to me.  I am not going to go into the technical part of the lens right now,  just the reasons why I love it dearly and why it has become a go to lens for me.

Here are the 3 main reasons why I love this lens...
1- It gives the pictures a nice creamy, dreamy look. 

2- Because of the nice creaminess it gives to a photo, you can choose any backdrop. It pretty much hides the ugly away. So you get more options for shooting, which is always nice.

3- Since it is a zoom lens you can be further away and get in nice and close with out other people knowing, so it really helps out with those candid shots. 

I think I could go off more on why I love it, but I will spare you and just share a couple of photos that were taken with this fabulous lens.


 Go see what lens Terra loves to use...

Monday, March 25, 2013

Wedding Flowers

For me, flowers are one of the most important aspects of a wedding (besides a photographer of course) ;). They bring color, life, and amazing aromas that can bring on good memories.  They transform table settings from dead to alive!!  They take what was once a dull place and transform it into a beautiful, personality-filled one.  They put a smile on ones face and also symbolize life, growth, and rebirth. 
Today I am going to share with you someone who has a special talent with flowers. Her name is Ashlee. Her blog is Flowers By Ashlee. I had the opportunity a year and a half ago to photograph her wedding. It was a beautiful day, and her flowers were stunning!! While I was helping to put a shoot together for WPPI we were looking for a florist. I knew the perfect person to contact. I asked her and she said yes!! I was so happy. I knew for sure that the flowers for our shoot would be AH-mazing! When she pulled out all of the floral pieces I squealed with delight! The photos you see are from the Vegas shoot. I took some pictures of Ashlee and her handsome Hubby while the shoot was going on. If you are in the Las Vegas area and need flowers I hope you give this lovely lady a call. You won't regret it!

Also, my amazing friend (and photographer) Tara Winsor is doing a Wedding giveaway on her blog. You must go check it out and enter! 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Day 1 of WPPI. A Little Crazy. A Little Fun. A Little Bit Cool.

On March 10th I had the opportunity to drive down to Vegas with Erin, Terra and Tara who are photographers and are now my dear friends, for a Photography Convention Called WPPI. It was my first time going so I was a little nervous and excited to see how my week would play out. We Left early that Sunday morning and talked the whole drive down.

 I had joined forces at the last minute with Kirsten (another awesome photographer) and with the help of several others we put together a 50's vintage wedding shoot for Sunday evening. It was fun and stressful all at the same time. I had found the gold dress just a week before and it arrived on my doorstep 2 days before I left for Vegas. I was like a child on Christmas morning when I opened the package and pulled out the dress. The shoot was amazing. Fifteen other photographers were there participating in the shoot. The models were fabulous and the decor for it was awesome. That night I enjoyed dinner with some of my new friends. We laughed and had such a great time. Right now I am going to leave you with some of the photos from the shoot. You will have to check back next week to see just how crazy,fun and cool WPPI was. :) 



















Thanks for reading! :)
Kelli



Vendor Credits
Tablescape | St George Party Rentals
Makeup | Nikky Styles Hair & Makeup
Hair | Styles by Des and Gabby
Florals | Flowers by Ashlee
Cake and desserts | Mandy and McKinna of Kinna’s Kreation
Paper Details | Bensten Designs


To see the week of WPPI from my friends point of view, hop on over to their blogs. One of them has a video up which I am positive will be very entertaining.
Terra Cooper- http://www.terracooper.com/blog/
Tara Winsor- http://winsorphotography.com/blog/
Erin Summerill- http://erinsummerillphotography.com/blog/

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Mine.

Today I am sharing with you a big part of my life... my two adorable boys. Brad & Jensen. They could not be any more cuter. They could not make me any more happier. They are constantly showing me how to be better. When I say the word "stupid" they nicely remind me that I said a bad word. They come up and give me hugs and kisses. They say the cutest things that melt my heart.

For example, the other day I pulled out my wedding album to show them. I sat down on the couch and they came and cuddled up on me. I put the album on my lap and opened it up. The first picture was a big one of their Daddy and Mommy. The first thing Brad says is, "yook(look) Mom, you a princess". Then Jensen chimes in, "yeah Mom. You a princess".  It is times like those that they melt my heart. I can walk into a room wearing a dress and they tell me how pretty I look. I got a new skirt and Brad says to me, "Mom, what's that?" (pointing at my skirt) and I tell him "it's my new skirt" and he replies, "I yike (like) it"

Even though they are twins they are two very different spirits that were sent especially for me. Their constant love is unconditional. I am grateful for them and so very lucky to call them mine.

To learn some more about my awesome friends go read their posts. They are pretty amazing women!

http://erinsummerillphotography.com/blog/
http://winsorphotography.com/
http://terracooper.com/blog/

Monday, March 18, 2013

Past Favorites!

 Today I am wanting to share with you some of my favorites from last year. Not only do I love the way the pictures turned out but I really loved the time I was able to spend with these couples. I really feel that I always walk away from a wedding with new friends.  A couple of things that I love about these photos are...

1- I love seeing the love in their eyes. I believe in capturing the connection between a couple.
2- I love the feeling a photo can give. These make me happy and they bring a smile to my face.
3- I love the reality. I try to shoot what is real between a couple.

Basically I love couples. I love to shoot their love and their story. I believe as a wedding photographer I need to find and capture those moments that can come on so quickly and leave just as fast. That is what I love to do.

A couple more things that I love are 3 ladies that have become my dear friends. I respect them and their skills as photographers. Please check them out and Leave them some love!!

www.erinsummerillphotography.com/blog

www.winsorphotography.com/blog

www.terracooper.com/blog/

Thank you,
Kelli :)